Nepal must strengthen its new legislation on the right to housing, keep its promise to prevent homelessness and ensure safe and adequate housing for all, Amnesty International said in its latest briefing on June 13.
The briefing stated that the right to adequate housing is a human right that everyone is entitled to without discrimination, yet this remains a human rights challenge in Nepal, where 49% of its population lives in substandard housing and less than 30% of people’s houses are considered structurally safe. Four years on, 50% of the earthquake victims who are left homeless are still waiting for a housing grant from the government to help rebuild their homes.
The organisation stressed on an issue that while the enactment of the 2018 Right to housing law is an important step towards fighting against homelessness, Amnesty International’s briefing,”Nepal: Adequate Housing for all: Analysis of the Right to Housing Act 2018” calls on the Nepal government to bring the right to housing law in line with the country’s international human rights obligations concerning right to adequate housing and rectify the present law through amendments.
“With less than a third of all homes structurally unsafe, nearly half the population living in substandard homes and one in ten urban population homeless, legal protections are urgently needed to ensure that people can live in safe, humane and durable conditions,” said Raju Chapagai, South Asia Researcher at Amnesty International.
The main focus of the briefing was that the government of Nepal must review the Act in consultation with the civil society organisations and the National Human Rights Institutions and address the shortcomings by amending the Right to Housing Act immediately and they must ensure the law supports marginalized communities, such as people living poverty, those living in informal settlements, Dalits and land- dependent indigenous peoples, including Tharu.
“The growing number of people living in such inadequate conditions, in informal settlements and slums highlights the Nepal government’s failure to uphold its human rights obligations to ensure adequate housing. If the government is serious about fixing the country’s housing and homelessness crisis, it must anchor its housing strategies in human rights and also reach out first to those groups that have been marginalized and discriminated against,” said Raju Chapagai.
